Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near Prarie View Estates Union, IL

Union is a small village in McHenry County, about 55 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, that grew up in the mid-19th century as a railroad station and trading post.

A post office called Union has been in operation since 1852, and the village was named for the federal union of the United States.

Union was incorporated in 1897 and remains one of the smallest incorporated villages in McHenry County.

This village of just a few hundred people is home to the Illinois Railway Museum, the largest railroad museum in the United States.

The Illinois Railway Museum was founded in 1953 by ten people who pooled $100 each to save a single interurban railcar from scrap, and it moved to its site east of Union in 1964.

The museum's campus covers more than 100 acres with several hundred pieces of historic railroad equipment, and it is the only railway museum in the country that offers trolley bus rides.

Union is also home to the McHenry County Historical Society's museum, giving the tiny village two museums of regional significance.

Union had a population of 551 in the 2020 census, down slightly from 580 in 2010, and the village has stayed under 650 residents in every census since 1880.

The village's parks are Veterans Park and Siems Park, and the McHenry County Conservation District's Pleasant Valley Conservation Area - more than 2,000 acres of woodland, fields, and trails - lies nearby.

Clasen's Tavern on Main Street, established in 1900 and considered McHenry County's oldest tavern, survived Prohibition by disguising itself as an ice cream parlor and a post office.